Tilting at Windmills - critiquing SUV's

Washington Monthly, Dec, 2002 by Charles Peters

What distinguishes Ms. Krawcheck is that she talks tough and once had the nerve to downgrade an enterprise headed by Citigroup chief Sanford Weill. But will Krawcheck really be all that different from the usual rah-rah Wall Street analysts? After all, the name of the game is getting customers to buy stock. So let's look at what her most recent recommendations were at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., her last company: Only 5.4 percent were "sell" or "strong sell." In other words, 94.6 percent were optimistic.

LAST MONTH'S ARTICLE ABOUT liberal helplessness on defense issues ("War Torn," by Heather Hurlburt) modestly refrained from mentioning the Monthly's long effort to inspire our fellow liberals to play a constructively critical role on defense. I'm not so modest. Indeed, I'm very proud of what we did, beginning with an article in our second issue called "How the Pentagon Can Save $9 Billion," and we meant without cutting muscle. We were always willing to take responsibility for distinguishing between what was needed and what wasn't. To give just one example of our pioneering on what was needed, Gregg Easterbrook wrote in 1984 about the need for a drone plane a decade before the first one went into action in Bosnia.

IN THE WAKE OF THE DISASTER last month, here's my advice to my fellow Democrats:

Don't let the Republicans seize the middle. Expose the phoniness of Wall Street reform a la Harvey Pitt, of prescription drug benefits that don't give enough help to enough people, and of leave-no-child-behind education programs that do not provide the money to really improve poor schools. When the Republicans actually have good ideas, as in the case of seeking higher standards and better teachers, you can warmly embrace them, confident in the, sure and certain knowledge that they will be few and far between. The GOP is far too firmly rooted in its right wing.

Lead the base; don't follow its lowest common denominator. The Democratic base consists of women, minorities, and unions, especially those of public employees and teachers, who are the party's major contributors. It is essential that we lead our base instead of selling out to its worst side, as the Republicans have too often done with their judicial and regulatory appointments.

Consider, for example, the public employees' unions, whose wishes the Democrats followed by opposing flexibility in hiring and firing for the homeland security agency. This cost at least one Senate seat, Max Cleland's in Georgia. Public employees and teachers need to realize that the Democratic Party is their friend in recognizing the importance of government and of the public schools. They also need to realize that the best interests of good government and good schools are served when the best civil servants and teachers are hired, and the worst are fired.

Don't talk down. Don't treat people who oppose liberal policies such as gun control and abortion as cretins. Often they are workers and farmers who would be our natural political allies on economic issues. Treating them with disdain doesn't win elections. Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter understood this, and they are the only Democrats to win the presidency in the last 34 years.